Tri-Valley's Allen Shirer runs for a short gain during Saturday's scrimmage against Coshocton at Stewart Field. / MATTHEW LEASURE/Times Recorder

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West Muskingum running back Tyler Musselman finds some running room during high school football scrimmage action at River View, Saturday. / JIM BARSTOW/Times Recorder

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CAMBRIDGE -Zanesville traveled to Cambridge Friday morning to face Cambridge and Buckeye Local in a three-team scrimmage.

The Blue Devils scored once and allowed one against the Bobcats while they played to a scoreless draw with Buckeye Local.

Bryan Gaiters ripped off a 40-yard run to score the lone touchdown of the day. Coach Chad Grandstaff hopes the team can build on its offensive performance.

"Offensively, we were where I thought we would be," he said. "Now, we have a starting point to work from. Once we get those things corrected, we should be fine."

Grandstaff was pleased with his defensive effort as the team followed his coaching.

"I was real pleased with the defensive hitting and playing fast like we preached," he said. "We had guys flying around and hit people hard."

East Knox 2, Rosecrans 0

HOWARD - Rosecrans started its drives well but failed to put any in the end zone against East Knox on Saturday.

The first team offense drove 40 yards on its first possession and gained 35 yards on the second. Though the Bishops started well, they will continue to work on finishing drives.

"We had some nice pickups but made some mistakes that could hurt us down the line," coach Don Bush said. "Overall, I am pleased with the performance, and we should be in good shape. We just have subtle changes to make."

The Rosecrans defense held its ground well, though it allowed a pair of touchdowns to the Bulldogs. Despite East Knox sporting bigger athletes and more depth, Bush was pleased with the defensive effort."

"We held our own," Bush said, "but we need to pick up our intensity and get more aggressive."

Generals find some answers against Lakewood

THORNVILLE - Adrian Balser scored once as Sheridan hosted Lakewood in a scrimmage on Friday.

Generals coach Paul Culver was pleased with his team's effort in its first competition.

"I was satisfied with first scrimmage," he said. "We have a good idea of what we hope to accomplish. The point of the scrimmage is not what you do well (necessarily), but what we need to improve at."

The biggest question mark coming in to the season will be the trenches. Culver saw some positives but understands it is still a work in progress.

"We are new on the offensive and defensive line so they have to come together," Culver said. "We have good skill people, but our focus is to get better up front, and we still have a ways to go."

Meadowbrook 4, Maysville 2

BYESVILLE -Josh Willison caught a 15-yard pass from Matt Vallee and Cory Wilson added a 13-yard run to account for Maysville's two scores on Saturday.

Panthers coach Jason Lee was satisfied with the offensive effort. The team failed to finish off its first drive, but both touchdowns came on 12 play, 70 yard drives. Along with scoring, they also did not allow Meadowbrook to sack quarterback Matt Vallee.

"We ran out of plays on the first drive, but overall, the offense was very solid," Lee said.

Lee admits the defense still has work to do. They allowed the Colts to score four touchdowns and saw things the Panthers need to fix.

"We knew we had a lot of question marks coming in on the defense," he said. "We didn't stop them on the down and distance drills and could not stop them (overall) so we have a lot of work to do."

Philo 5, Belpre 2

BELPRE - Philo's offense showed its strength Saturday as Brian Krouskpouf caught two touchdowns while Carter Paul ran for two and caught another on a screen Saturday.

"This is our first year working from shotgun," Electrics coach Pete Woods said. "I was pleased with the progression of the offense, but we still have a long way to go."

Philo's defense did its job in the first scrimmage as it only allowed two touchdowns. Woods hopes players on both sides of the ball use this as a stepping stone.

"No one stood out. We just played pretty solid team defense," Woods said. "This was a chance to play a good football team, and we have to want to get better."

River View 1, West Muskingum 0

WARSAW - Sophomore quarterback Jared Miller connected with junior running back Vincent Moore for a 35-yard touchdown pass as the Black Bears came out on top in their scrimmage at Don Rushing Stadium.

"I am pleased with our intensity and our attitude today," River View coach Chad Massie said. "The kids came out and we started aggressive. We didn't wait until 10 or 15 plays into the scrimmage which is a problem we've had in the past.

West Muskingum coach Paul Perry was pleased with his team's performance, outside a 55-yard touchdown pass from Austin Brock to Dalton Worthington that was called back because of a penalty.

"It surprised me a little bit but it was a pleasant surprise," he said. "We're better than I thought we were offensively and defensively. We played hard and the kids came out with a lot of intensity and team camaraderie.

"We have a young team but everybody played pretty well.

Tri-Valley 3, Coshocton 1

COSHOCTON - Coming off its first playoff appearance ever, the Tri-Valley High School football team appears to be poised for another run toward a solid season.

Competing at Coshocton's Stewart Field, the Scotties emerged with a win over the Redskins by unleashing a passing attack that resulted in all three touchdowns.

"Overall, it was just a good scrimmage," said Tri-Valley head coach Justin Buttermore. "We're not really concerned with wins or losses. We just want to see our kids play hard and play assignment football and stay healthy.

"We're happy with just getting a good hard physical scrimmage. I thought Coshocton was a physical team and it was good for us to come out physical too and I think we did."

Scoring for the Dawgs was Wade Warner, who caught a 60-yard touchdown pass from Cam West. West also connected with Michael Lawler for a 10 yard touchdown pass and Clay Cameron hauled in an eight yard pass reception for a TD.

Coshocton's score came on a 25 yard pass from Logan Heubner to A.J. Hession.

Buttermore was pleased to see progress from the beginning of last season.

"Certainly we wanted to see improvement over last year," he said. "When you have a lot of returning starters you don't want to come out and see yourself regress and overall, we started off ahead of where we were a year ago."

Buttermore believes his offensive unit was slightly ahead of the defense, but was not displeased.

"We gave up one touchdown and it was on the last play of the series so it's one that I think never should happen but it does. Coshocton tested us and got some chunks of yardage but overall our defense played well too."